Photo By Scott Sturkol | Students and staff in the 89B Ammunition Supply Course participate in sling-load...... read more read more
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During fiscal year 2024, hundreds of Soldiers trained at Fort McCoy in seven iterations of the four-week 89B10 Ammunition Supply Course with the Regional Training Site-Maintenance at Fort McCoy.
These Soldiers embarked became certified in one of the most “significantly important” career fields in the Army, according to the course’s manager.
Soldiers have been training in 89B courses at Fort McCoy for years, and the work to keep the career field ready with qualified Soldiers continues.
“We prepare students who want to reclass this military occupational specialty, and we’ll start by teaching them the basics about identifying ammunition,” said Staff Sgt. Christopher Nieves, 89B10 course manager. “We’ll also work on the militarization of ammunition. We’ll show how to prepare our demolition farming systems. We’ll go to the demolition range. I’ll also explain to them that as we move more towards the last phase of the course, the last module, we'll go more into like ammunition storage point operations.
“That is the heart of an operation of an 89B,” Nieves said. “It’s knowing how to conduct ammunition supply point operations. … Then we'll move on to other activities, such as like performing sling load operations, reaction to fires, and that type of training.”
According to the course description, the course covers training on munitions publications, catalog data, military explosives, ammunition identification, munitions markings, demolition operations, ammunition unit ops and munitions hazard identification.
The course also endeavors “to train enlisted personnel to perform duties involving storage, issue, receipt, handling, inventory, re-warehousing, destruction, maintenance, and movement of ammunition,” the course description states. Also, to “perform ammunition issue, receipt, storage, handling, re-warehousing, transportation, and inventory operations that include ammunition identification, procedures for the safe handling, proper care and preservation of munitions, creating and transmitting ammunition reports to higher headquarters, sling load operations, firefighting, and hazard identification of ammunition items.”
Nieves added the 89B career field is a critical career field for the Army.
“We are the commodity that the warfighter cannot be without,” Nieves said. “(If) we don’t have ammunition, if we don’t have bullets, then we can’t win our wars.
“So, it is actually critical that people come and reclass or train into this MOS,” Nieves said. “Without ammunition, we don’t have an Army.”
Nieves said he also has appreciated being able to be an instructor to 89B students for nearly two years.
“I would say, you know, as an instructor overall, this is my first time in the general environment being an instructor and … when you teach something to someone that’s of value to that person, … and that they will utilize it in the future, it is very rewarding,” Nieves said. “A lot of times we get Soldiers coming here … and they’re just getting ready for deployment. So, it is extremely critical because we’re trying to teach all these skills to these new Soldiers, and then they’ll be deployed.”
Once they’re trained, 89B Soldiers hold a wealth of skills, as shown in the MOS description at https://www.goarmy.com/careers-and-jobs/support-logistics/transportation-inventory/89b-ammunition-specialist.
“As an ammunition specialist, you’ll be responsible for the highly specialized care and management of ammunition, explosives, and their components,” the Army job description states. “You’ll perform stock control and accounting duties, and you’ll be in charge of receiving, storing, issuing, and inspecting weapon systems to determine if they need repair or need to be destroyed. This means you’ll be in charge of blowing up expired or partially used explosives and other ordnance in controlled settings, a crucial part of keeping our troops safe.”
RTS-Maintenance trains thousands of Soldiers every year in the Army’s 91-series MOS and in the 89B MOS. The unit aligns under the 3rd Brigade (Ordnance), 94th Division of the 80th Training Command, and is centrally located in the cantonment area with an entire complex to hold training.
Fort McCoy’s motto is to be the “Total Force Training Center.”
Located in the heart of the upper Midwest, Fort McCoy is the only U.S. Army installation in Wisconsin.
The installation has provided support and facilities for the field and classroom training of more than 100,000 military personnel from all services nearly every year since 1984.
Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/fortmccoywi, and on X (formerly Twitter) by searching “usagmccoy.”
Also try downloading the My Army Post app to your smartphone and set “Fort McCoy” or another installation as your preferred base. Fort McCoy is also part of Army’s Installation Management Command where “We Are The Army’s Home.”
| Date Taken: | 10.08.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 10.08.2024 12:20 |
| Story ID: | 482747 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 739 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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